FWAA will pick Super 11 sports information departments

Beginning with the 2009 season the FWAA will name 11 schools to a "Super 11" Sports Information Department Team.

Schools' SID offices in the NCAA Bowl Subdivision conferences will be evaluated by a 12-person committee.

There will be an FWAA member representing each conference. Tim Griffin of ESPN.com, the FWAA's first vicepresident, is chairman of the committee.

The committee's decision will be announced in the winter after each football season and be based on observations of the committee and its observers during the course of the football season. The evaluation process starts with the 2009 pre-season Football Media Days in July.

At the urging of CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik, an FWAA member, the FWAA has instituted the awards system. It is similar to the Press Box Citations the FWAA has awarded to schools in the past. The new program, however, will rate schools on SID functions outside of the press box as well. A list of the main criteria will be available at fwaa.com.

But as an overview, there will be 10 main categories, mainly dealing with minimum accessibility to players and coaches, press box decorum and helpfulness by SID staff in a number of areas.

CoSIDA leadership has reviewed the categories, which were developed by veteran FWAA members who have covered college football a number of years.

The FWAA will strive to have diversity among winners in different conferences, but multiple winners in the same conference in the same season are possible.

The Top 11 finishers will each receive one commemorative football from the FWAA to display in their SID offices or press boxes. The names of the main football contacts will be placed on the footballs.

FWAA SUPER 11 COMMITTEE: ACC: Alan Schmadtke, Orlando Sentinel; Big East: Lenn Robbins, New York Post; Big Ten: Herb Gould, Chicago Sun-Times; Big 12: Tim Griffin, espn.com; Conference USA: Ted Lewis, New Orleans Times-Picayune; Independents: Dennis Dodd, cbssports.com; MAC: Matt Markey, Toledo Blade; Mountain West: Mark Anderson, Las Vegas Review-Journal; Pac-10: Ted Miller, espn.com; SEC: Mike Griffith, Knoxville News Sentinel; Sun Belt: Adam Sparks, Daily News Journal; WAC: Chadd Cripe, Idaho Statesman.